Stargate Highlander
by herk227
Summary: Who does the SGC turn to, when they are in need of an expert on languages and Daniel is not available? And how does Simon Fisher - Methos' latest identity - react when approached by the military?


_**Stargate Highlander**_

Simon Fisher put his signature under the final page of the final paper. He had finally finished grading the term papers of 'his' Bachelor students. It was a way to earn his living and not the worst. Yet he was glad that he wouldn't have to look at another paper until the start of the next term.

His own Master thesis was still waiting to be graded and it would probably take some weeks until the committee could decide whether it was good enough to justify being accepted as a Doctor thesis instead. Since he couldn't do anything to influence the outcome either way, he looked forward to some blissful twenty days or so of drinking beer, reading a good book or three, sleeping in and generally not doing much of anything useful.

He was just on his way to the fridge to get himself his first beer as a little reward for a job well done, when the door bell rang.

– S*G*H –

"Mr Fisher? Lt. Col. Samantha Carter, United States Air Force. May I come in?"

Sam looked at the young man before her. Fisher was in his mid-twenties. His blonde hair seemed a bit long to her, she was used to military style haircuts, but it gave the tall lean man some sort of boyish charm. He was obviously surprised, which grad student of dead languages wouldn't be, if he was confronted with a US Air Force colonel standing in there door, wanting to speak to him.

The surprise showing in his features was almost immediately replaced by calm confidence. He smiled at her politely.

"Of course – I'd be honored."

He stepped aside and invited her in with a sweeping gesture. Followed by two soldiers of the SGC Sam stepped into a clean and neat apartment. Obviously Fisher kept his home well organized, only a stack of papers on a desk in the living room showed that the man indeed worked here.

"Please have a seat," he invited Sam to the couch, making sure to include the soldiers as he continued. "May I offer you something to drink coffee, tea, water? I'm afraid my choices are rather limited since I didn't expect company," he apologized.

"Coffee would be nice, thank you." Both soldiers nodded in agreement at Sam's statement.

Fisher stepped out of the living room. Despite the fact that she didn't have a lot of time Carter was glad to have a few moments to gather her thoughts and go over her first impression of Simon Fisher. What she was about to do never got easy but it helped if you had an idea about who the person was, you were dealing with.

From the background check Sam knew that Fisher was 24 years old and had transferred to the University of Washington two years ago. Before that he had studied in Boston and his east coast accent was pretty prolonged. The t-shirt and jeans he wore looked well worn but of good quality and a fashionable fit.

Not much about him screamed student especially not genius. Sam was used to the creative chaos that surrounded most brilliant scientist she knew. Due to her military discipline her work space was by far the most orderly compared to people like McKay or Daniel, but when she was lost in an interesting problem even she tended to clutter all over the place. So either Fisher didn't usually work here, he wasn't engrossed in any catching work or he was really weird.

If the circumstances were different she might have decided not to talk to him after all, but his name was the only one on Daniel's desk with enough notes attached to it, to make it seem likely he'd be able to help. and they needed help. Daniel needed help.

If it wasn't too late already.

– S*G*H –

In the kitchen Simon Fisher prepared coffee. His mind raced. He couldn't really think of a reason for the Air Force to talk to a linguist with a specialization in dead languages, on the other hand he could think of one very good reason why the US military – any military really – would want to speak to him. The most obvious thing would be that they had somehow found out that neither Simon nor Fisher were part of his real name. That indeed Fisher hadn't even existed until two years ago and that the man using that name was a bit older than his supposedly 24 years.

Only four facts made him come back into the living room with a tray of coffee.

One – 'Simon Fisher' was a calm, competent and self-assured person, it wouldn't fit in with his new character to flee in a panic.

Two – he was pretty experienced in bluffing his way out of a tight spot and he knew staying calm was his best chance of survival.

Three – he was curious how much they really knew – curious as hell.

And fourth – his apartment had a terrible lack of back doors.

Simon put milk and sugar on his tray and went to join his visitors.

– S*G*H –

"Mr Fisher have you heard of Dr. Daniel Jackson?" Sam opened the real part of the conversation after the necessary pleasantries had been exchanged.

His first reaction was to try and remember if he had ever used that alias. Then he remembered a few articles he had read when he had still worn another name.

"Wasn't he the specialist in ancient Egyptian, who was part of that big archeology dig some ten years back? He was a real wiz kid in the field, although. eccentric, but then he dropped out of academic circles. I read some of his work – pretty ground breaking if unconventional. Then he suddenly more or less disappeared."

Sam nodded, that was pretty much how things must have looked from the academic circles.

"Dr Jackson had his reasons to stop publishing but he never stopped following the current trends and magazines of his area. Obviously your work impressed him because we found your name high up on the list of people he considered to bring in on the project we are working on. The reason he stopped publishing – as you can guess – is that he's working on a top secret government project. Before I continue I need to know if you are willing to sign this confidentiality agreement."

She put some paperwork on the table between them.

'A confidentiality agreement? What the hell is going on here?' Fisher didn't know what to make of the whole situation. Usually he tried to stay away from the important stuff, most of the time it wasn't worth the trouble. But his interest was awoken and what did some agreement really mean to him. Even if he decided to break it – which was highly unlikely – then Simon Fisher might be wanted for treason, but that didn't mean much to him. He didn't bother himself with high moralistic viewpoints, he didn't have much of a sentimental attachment to any country (they came and went and were quickly forgotten in his experience) and to get into a new persona after a relatively short time was at worst a nuisance.

He quickly skimmed over the papers to make sure they consisted more or less of the legal phrases he expected before – for the last time today – he scribbled down his signature. He leaned back sprawling himself over his couch and waited for the colonel to continue.

– S*G*H –

Carter was surprised by how quickly Fisher agreed to her terms, some quick glances and she had his agreement, no question asked. Obviously the young man trusted his government enough not get into the whole 'secrecy is evil' debate a lot of the intellectuals seemed to love so much. This definitely gained him some sympathy points with Sam.

While the clock ticked away the minutes she told him everything he needed to know: the archeology dig, how Daniel got involved, the Stargate program, the Goa'uld, the ancients and finally their last find. How Daniel was brought in because, they'd found ruins and old machines of some until-now-unknown culture, how he'd tried to decipher that weird variation of Ancient and after thinking he'd worked it out vanishing in a flash of light.

That had been eight days ago.

It had taken that long to come to the conclusion that no one at the SGC had the necessary skills to help them and to convince the powers that be to allow her to bring in someone else.

Fisher stayed quiet through her whole speech, obviously dealing with the shock of discovering aliens were real, in the quiet way. Only a slight tension showed her, that he had indeed heard her and wasn't just phased out.

– S*G*H –

The first flashback hit him when she mentioned Anubis – a youthful face, the embodiment of arrogance and the certain knowledge that if the god ever found out about him, his fate would be worse than death.

-Egypt-

"_The god will know, Methos. He will punish us all." Fearful eyes looked at him. Bachet was his friend but he had lived all of his 16 years under the tyranny of Lord Anubis._

"_He isn't a god Bach." Methos just hoped he was right, because if he wasn't then his plans were bound to fail and he had to have his revenge. "He won't know what happened, we just have to wait until he's gone the next time, then we'll kill his people and bury the 'chaapa'ai', forever banishing him into whatever hell he visits."_

_Bachet stared at him with anger and accusation in his eyes. "You only want to avenge Syri. Since the god took your wife from you, you don't care if you live or die."_

"_This has nothing to do with your sister." - 'Liar.' - "She is gone. But if we don't stop him, he will take others again and again. We have to stop him for our people to have a future."_

_Later on he had always insisted, that he got into it for solely egoistical reasons – having a future was more personal for him than most people after all. And he simply couldn't afford some mad tyrant finding out about his immortality. All in all it was only logical to get involved in the revolution._

– S*G*H –

That probably was the oldest memory he had remembered in a long time. Being several millenia old had its disadvantages when it came to memories; there simply were too many of them and after a while they sunk so far into the subconsciousness that they were mostly lost to him. He had definitely been immortal back then, even if he didn't have a clue of how old he'd been. It meant that he had to shift his assumed birthday back a few centuries at least. While he still tried to get his mind around those personal bits of information the voice of the colonel penetrated his thoughts.

"Daniel vanished eight days ago and we need you to figure out what went wrong and how to get him back."

Methos swallowed. Although he had phased out for most of the speech he had captured enough to understand what she was asking and what she was offering. To be upon the lucky few to simply step upon the surface of another planet, to see and feel an alien world. After all these centuries something _new_.

"I guess I should start packing."

– S*G*H –

It had taken two hours for him to make the necessary phone calls, throw a few clothes together and reach the airport. On his way to Cheyenne mountain Col. Carter brought him up to date on a few more things and then left him with a laptop containing Jackson's work on the Ancient language.

When they reached the SGC a few hours later Methos had already learned a good deal about the language and felt that he began to grasp the basics. Jackson's notes might have never been intended to teach someone Ancient, but due to necessity they were still mostly well ordered and where they weren't he seemed to follow similar patterns of association at least. It might take weeks to reach a level where he would be actually able to help, but now it seemed to be a reachable goal.

Carter introduced him to the security measures and handed him an identification card, warning him to always keeping it on his person. By the time he met General Landry the innovation of this stuff had already begun to wear of and he wished these people would simply let him get to work. Military personnel were never his favorite to begin with. He held no high regard for officers in general and Generals in particular and he hated it when these people expected respect that in most cases had yet to be earned. So instead of acting appropriately impressed he realized that he reacted a bit snappish towards the man who was the boss around here.

– S*G*H –

Although Fisher acted genuinely impressed when she first showed him around, it didn't take long for him to get impatient. Now that was a territory Sam felt familiar with, the scientist was so entrapped in his work already that everything else was considered an unwanted distraction. So Sam did her best to keep the necessary tour short although she loved to show off her work on the seldom occasions when she was allowed to do so.

When they ran into Landry, it took a lot of her self-control not to smile at the General's surprised expression as Fisher snapped at him. She failed to suppress a smile completely, when she saw the panic in the young man's face as he realized what he had done. To help to defuse the situation she led the linguist to the gate room, sending an apologetic smile in Landry's direction.

For a moment the General looked after his brightest scientist and the young wiz kid who they hoped could help Dr. Jackson.

He was quite perplexed by Fisher's behavior but then he shrugged it off as a combination of the man being a) young, b) a scientific genius and c) a civilian. He went off to meet SG-5 for their debriefing.

– S*G*H –

"And this is the gate."

Methos hardly heard Carter's words. The chaapa'ai – he hadn't seen it for millenia, had hoped to never see it again. But here it was, time hadn't touched its surface but a few additions showed that at the same time everything had changed. The chaapa'ai was in the hands of men.

-Egypt-

_Of course no one had wanted to listen to him and he had to leave. _

_It was seventy years later. Anubis still ruled the land and Methos had returned to see if if the people were now ready to throw the false god out. Seventy years was more than enough time for everybody he had known to die and for for everybody to forget about him. He hoped this new generation would be accessible to his ideas._

_He took some time getting to know the people around here, finding out who would be most sympathetic to his goal. As always the young were the most likely source of uproar and he managed to befriend two young men, who hated Anubis almost as much as he did._

"_We have to do something," Tarek the younger and more emotional of the two stated._

_Methos nodded._

_Arem interrupted his friend's tirade before he could get really started. "Many still believe Anubis a god."_

_Methos decided to speak, if there was to be a chance, he needed to convince these two at least._

"_Even if he was, he could still be defeated," he stated firmly. "I traveled far and wide and there are stories everywhere of gods being killed. People up north even believe it to be the ultimate destiny of all gods to die. Anubis won't fall easily but fall he will, if we work together."_

_Unluckily for him some of the village's elders chose that moment to appear. Naturally they took a hold of the stranger, who was obviously a troublemaker. They decided to bring him before the Eldest, a frail old man, who hadn't even left his tent since Methos arrived and who was well known to be against even the thought of revolution._

_-Egypt-_

_The inside of the tent was relatively dark and Methos' eyes took a moment to adjust. A delicate old man lay upon several cushions and skins. He appeared to be older than any person Methos had met until that day. He had lost all of his teeth, most of his hair and his skin seemed to have the structure of leather. Yet his eyes hadn't lost their sharpness, which was proven as he called out._

"_Methos?" His question was met by surprised silence, no one had mentioned the stranger to the old man until now, still he knew his name. While the other elders still wondered which kind of magic was woven here, the old man continued. "And you haven't aged a day. Why have you come here again, old friend? Why have you come to old Bachet?"_

_While Methos cursed his luck, his captors answered their leader respectfully. "He came to stir trouble, Eldest. He talks about revolution against our god."_

_Bachet's reaction was neither what Methos nor the villagers had expected. The old man chuckled, then laughed. He only stopped when a fit of coughing forced him to. Methos was at his side immediately. Ignoring the other people, doing his best to ease the old man's breathing until he finally was able to talk again._

"_I always thought you were foolish, when I was young. And although you've been good to me, I was glad when you left. Now I see what a fool __I__'ve been. You knew what you were talking about – after all who would know better how to get rid of a god than a god?"_

_The Eldest chuckled softly and turned to the other leaders of his village. _

"_This man was once married to my oldest sister and he had a few years on her when he came to our people. This man is indeed no man my friends but possesses the power of gods. We will have to reconsider our opinion on revolution, now that Methos has returned to lead us against Anubis. But first I beg of you to leave us alone for a while so that my sister-husband and I might speak in private."_

_-Egypt-_

_The old man really was happy to see him again. Grateful for the opportunity to talk to someone who still remembered his old friends, his sister and the way things used to be. And then he practically blackmailed Methos into leading the revolution against Anubis._

"_If a god leads us, the people will follow. It's the only thing to unite them, a real chance for our revolution to succeed."_

"_Bach I don't want to __lead__ a revolution." Methos' voice was soft and full of affection._

"_Without your leadership there will be no revolution for anyone to lead. You can't hide behind others this time."_

_The immortal sounded stern when he questioned the old man. "Is that a way to talk to a god?"_

"_I'm far too old to be afraid of gods, Methos. There is nothing you could do to me, that time hasn't already done or will do in a short while anyway. Also it's the only way I ever knew to talk to my beloved sister's husband: honest and open."_

_Of course Methos realized that the old man was manipulating him, he was no fool. But that didn't stop the warm flow of affection, he felt for this ancient human being, who he had once known as a mere boy. And it didn't stop the rush of anger directed at Anubis when he remembered the wife taken from him._

– S*G*H –

Simon Fisher stared at the Stargate remembering exactly how it had felt under his fingers, when he buried it in the sand with the help of hundreds of people who he had led against a false god.

"It's impressive isn't it?" Carter's soft voice interrupted his thoughts.

After so many intense memories in such a short time Methos felt kind of raw. Thousands of years of experience had told him never to let anyone see any emotional vulnerability at least not unprepared. He was glad that Fisher was a confident man, who wasn't easy to impress, and he called upon this persona now to hide his inner turmoil.

"Not really – it's a big circular lump of metal. Pretty – yes, impressive – no." Sure that his features were under control he turned towards her. "But to know what it's capable of..."

"You'll walk through it soon enough, Mr. Fisher. I guess that will be impressive enough."

Carter led him to Jackson's office, where he could work and make himself at home until they arranged everything that was necessary to send him through the gate. He looked at the – probably organized – chaos and sighed. He hated it if people invaded his work place and guessed that Jackson felt the same way. Well he couldn't help it and it served the purpose of bringing the linguist back, so he'd better not complain. Methos sat down to work.

– S*G*H –

22 hours later after a lot of reading, a lot of coffee and far too little sleep Simon Fisher stepped through the event horizon of an artificial wormhole for the first time in his life.

The handful of soldiers accompanying him all were experienced in this specific way way of traveling. For them it was nothing more than business as usual. One of them commented.

"Another one that looks like the woods around Vancouver."

Fisher turned around towards him. "Are you kidding? On the first look this might seem a little like Earth, but the leaves are the wrong shape, the grass is different, the air tastes dissimilar to anything I've ever breathed and the gravity is at least 10% higher than at home. How anyone could mistake this for Vancouver of all places..." He stopped when he saw Sam Carter grinning at him, then broke into a wide smile himself. "It's fantastic."

Sam couldn't help but feel warmth spreading inside, when she saw the young linguist's enthusiasm. 'there goes another one,' she thought. This ability to notice the sight differences and to admire them and what they really meant was something that divided the truly devoted gate traveler from the rest of humanity. Nothing could ever make up for this particular quality and without it you would never belong to the elite, no matter how good you were otherwise.

Daniel had it in spades, as she did herself. Jack – General O'Neill always tried to hide it, but it was there nonetheless and the same was true for Teal'c. Jonas could only function as a part of their team because he had it, too. But all in all it was a rare gift, which made it so difficult to find replacements or additions for SG-1.

But Simon Fisher had it, combined with a youthful enthusiasm that made Sam like him without knowing much else about him. She didn't need to.

– S*G*H –

The old ruins were half an hour's march from the Stargate and the ten percent additional gravity didn't make things easier in the rough terrain. Methos was grateful that his training with and because of McLeod had left him with a fitter body than he had had in centuries.

At the ruins there was a camp set up by the SGC. Carter introduced him to the people on side. The names didn't mean anything to him and he forgot most of them instantly. The biggest exception being Teal'c. He was introduced as a Jaffa – an alien. He held himself like an experienced warrior and he eyed Methos suspiciously. The old immortal felt very uneasy around the quiet giant. He felt intimidated by the man's obvious strength and he could sense a certain hostility directed at him. He didn't know if he imagined it, but at least it seemed to get better after Col Carter spoke to her team mate in private. Still Simon Fisher needed to work in Dr. Jackson's tent, which gave Methos ample opportunity to avoid the company of the Jaffa.

– S*G*H –

Two weeks later Methos had not much to show off for his efforts but a terrible headache, a hurting back and tense muscles because of a severe lack of training. Well he did manage to get a good working knowledge of a completely new language but so far all of Dr. Jackson's translations held up and that was a problem. The man was now missing for over twenty days even with the 'we leave no man behind' policy of the SGC they were bound to give up sometime. Methos hoped that he'd be able to solve the problem before that unknown deadline was reached. He didn't like to admit defeat once he'd thrown himself into a problem.

And if he was honest with himself he didn't want this experience to end either. Even after sixteen days the euphoria hadn't worn off. There was a reason why he once did spent weeks trapped in a small boat with drunk Irish monks – back then it had been the only way to reach the new world. Over the last couple of centuries he had become a cynic but now he felt young again. Even if he did spent most of his times over books everything seemed fresh in a way it hadn't in ages.

He wasn't the only one working on this otherwise deserted planet. A small team of geophysicist and archeologists tried to find out as much about the history of this place as they could. Not that that helped with his work but at least he got some fairly interesting dinner conversations out of it, which managed to distract him from his problems for a while.

Only today that wasn't going to work. General O'Neill was visiting the planet. As a close personal friend of the missing Dr. Jackson he wanted to make sure that everything humanly possible – and maybe a bit more – was done to bring the man back. So Simon Fisher was stuck explaining his working progress to a military man who wasn't exactly a professional in the area of expertise they were talking about, while at the next table some geologists talked about the drastic climate changes this world had gone through during the last millenia.

"So you've got nothing." O'Neil summed up the information Fisher had just given him.

The linguist sighed. "I managed to learn a – despite certain similarities to old Egyptian and Babylonian – completely new language. Obviously Dr. Jackson translated the script on the machine well and I would have chosen the same symbol he did, if I didn't know that he already tried it and it was a trap. He had way more experience with this kind of situation, so how come you expect me to miraculously pull out a solution your certified genius didn't see?"

Jack noticed that he might have gone too far, after all he knew the kid was doing a terrific job and was under a mount of pressure. It wasn't his fault Daniel wasn't here and he did his best to help. Still Jack wanted his friend back and he got more and more frustrated with the whole situation. In an attempt to change the subject O'Neill asked: "What symbol?"

Meeting with Fisher's slight confusion, Jack clarified: "What symbol did Daniel choose?"

"Life," Fisher answered without hesitation. But then his facial expression changed. He jumped up and turned to the table with the geo-something eggheads to exchange some excited words before he turned and ran out of the mess tent.

O'Neill didn't understand what was going on, but he followed the kid immediately.

– S*G*H –

Methos cursed himself under his breath. He more than anyone else should know how dangerous it was to become a creature of habit. When he reached the console of the machine he looked at it again as if for the first time. Suddenly everything seemed so obvious. He might still be wrong but he didn't believe so. The General had caught up with him and Col. Carter had come over too after seeing him running through the whole camp.

"Did you have an idea?" Carter asked a bit out of breath.

Simon turned to her grinning. "Look." He pointed at one of the symbols.

Both Air Force officers followed his finger and looked at the symbol.

"And?" O'Neill wanted to know.

"This is the symbol Dr. Jackson pushed as you both know. It's the symbol for water. He – like – me assumed that it is a symbol for life. It usually is. You see water is absolutely necessary for life in any form and desert people like the Egyptians are even more aware of that. But this planet isn't especially dry – never was. The geologists found proof that only two thousand years ago this place and a large part of the planet was covered by ocean. For these people it didn't make sense to associate water with life. On the contrary, water basically meant chaos for them or imprisonment. They were trapped by the cold, huge, deathly oceans on small habitable islands. So this..." he pointed at another symbol, "means order/structure/control. Now let's see if I'm right."

He had made sure that Carter – a woman with a pretty brilliant mind and a level head – understood what he implied. She smiled and turned towards the General. "Sounds good to me."

O'Neill obviously trusted her assessment. He put his hand on the button and pushed.

– S*G*H –

Afterwards the climax seemed a bit – well anti-climactic. The moment the General pushed the symbol in the monitor in the wall came to life. In the clearly structured main menu a mauve blinking light demanded their attention.

"Great you found the 'On' switch and none of us disappeared, kid. Now why don't you explain everything to me, before we push the next button."

The boy continued to look at the monitor but acknowledged Jack's comment with a nod. "The light has the prison symbol next to it. My guess is, that the system tells us – as authorized users – about Dr. Jackson's attempt to access it."

Carter nodded to show her support for his interpretation. She told Jack. "Those two symbols underneath are probably the decision between life and death for Daniel."

The part that it might be far too late to matter wasn't spoken out loud. They all knew that anyway.

Jack looked at the kid, it was a lot of pressure to make such a call, especially if you were just a geeky student with a talent for languages, for Christ's sake. Still he didn't seem too concerned when he pointed at the left symbol.

"That one will release him."

Jack didn't want to risk Daniel because someone inexperienced got overconfident. And this time – unlike most others – they weren't under any pressure to decide immediately, so he took the time to ask: "Are you sure, Simon? This is a very important decision and frankly I would like to understand how you can tell."

Methos turned to the General. The man's voice had made it pretty clear that O'Neill didn't want to insult him but just wanted to be cautious with the life of a friend. So he made a point of looking him in the eye, while he explained in a confident and level voice: "Yes, I am sure. I wouldn't take a risk with the life of your friend, General. You see while the right symbol is one I haven't seen before, the left one is actually the one for water only with an added circle, as Doctor Jackson's work and mine established however this circle negates the meaning of the encircled rune. Since the water rune is the one imprisoned him in the first place, this should bring your friend back, if that is at all possible."

Jack wondered how someone that young could be that confident. For a moment he thought about another certified genius who was always so sure of himself, but since Fisher wasn't an asshole about it nor did he show signs of ignoring or belittling the input of others he tended to believe him. He exchanged short look with the certified genius he trusted more than any other in both known galaxies. Carter's slight shrug told him what he already knew, they wouldn't get more information and the decision was up to him. Jack nodded at the kid. "Do it."

With a flash of blue light Daniel Jackson appeared between them looking exactly as he'd done the day he disappeared.

– S*G*H –

Daniel knew that he got teleported. He'd stepped through Stargates and ring teleporters often enough to recognize the tingling sensation throughout his whole body that always accompanied this specific mode of transportation. Actually the tingling was worse than most times, so he guessed that he'd been transported over a very large distance, or the technology wasn't on par with that of the Asgardians.

What really irritated him was the fact that he'd been beamed into the same place – Why would somebody do such a thing? – and that someone he had never before seen in his life stood at the monitor, pushing symbols.

When he turned his head to look around dizziness hit him like a brick wall and he toppled over just to be caught by Jack. He had just enough time to wonder about Jack's presence, then he passed out.

O'Neill gently laid Daniel on the ground, while Sam was already putting her head out of the ruins, shouting for a medical team. A doctor arrived within moments to examine Dr. Jackson. After a quick check up she told them that he was – as far as she could see – fine, if a bit dehydrated. Jack felt better already. Sure a thorough medical observation would be necessary, but he was certain, that his friend had once again beaten the odds. Daniel would be fine adding another almost fatal accident to SG-1's list of narrow escapes. He registered that Fisher had a bottle of water in hand even before the doctor told them about the dehydration and promptly passed it to her.

"It's probably a side effect of their dematerialization technique or the fact that he was stored this long. Either way it will hardly be something serious, otherwise they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of storing the person in the first place instead of just killing him," Carter mused.

Methos didn't really care at this point he'd solved the puzzle, he deserved some beer and some sleep as a reward and even his last dinner wasn't finished. He quietly slipped away to the mess tent to remedy that fact.

– S*G*H –

Two days later back on Earth Methos step still had a small swagger to it. After over two weeks on that other planet the gravity around here seemed not enough to keep him grounded. It definitely was the difference in the gravitational pull and had nothing to do with his euphoria about this whole experience at all. At least that's what he told himself as he walked to General Landry's office.

"Dr. Fisher, come in."

Methos stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Actually, Sir – it's just Mr. not Dr.," he corrected with an apologetic smile.

Landry wore one of the biggest grins he'd ever seen when he answered. "Oh so no one told you yet? Your thesis obviously was considered doctor material, you'll only have to do the oral exams and you have your title. Congratulations."

Over the course of the last weeks Methos had actually forgotten all about that little thing. "Thank you, General. Although I have to confess it hardly seems to matter now."

With a gesture Landry invited him to sit down. "Well it should matter Mr. Fisher. Despite everything the SGC is still pretty hung up on such things as titles, which means I can only offer you a job, if you get those exams out of the way and become a full doctor."

The surprise left Methos speechless.

"That is, if you are interested in working for us."

A very old, very loud voice in the back of his head told him to say 'no', to distance himself very fast and very finally from this, that the risk of discovery simply was too great. Remembering the feeling of something NEW he very affectionately told his inner voice to 'shut the fuck up.'

"What's the salary?"

* * *

author's note: Methos has his hair bleached blonde for his new identity, to distance Simon Fisher optically from Adam Pierson, he also let his hair grow out a bit to pull of the young student look again. Teal'c's reaction is of course due to the fact that Simon Fisher reminds him far too much Tanith/Hebron


End file.
